Retrospectively, Sankha Kar was destined to venture into the world of art. But unlike his father, who used a paintbrush to capture an image on canvas, he uses a camera. Yet, more than genes, it was fate that charted the course of his career very early in life. When he was just 3, a crippling polio disease paralysed his right hand and left leg. He had to learn to walk again while other children pranced around effortlessly in the neighbourhood. This experience made him observant and now he was seeing things, which he would have otherwise missed.

It’s this special trait of looking at objects from a different perspective that has stood him in good stead in his almost three decade long photojournalism career.

Armed with an indomitable will, he forayed into photojournalism in Kolkata, India. After working with three regional language newspapers and Reuters in India, he moved to Dubai to work as a deputy photo editor at Gulf News. As a photojournalist, he has covered several major events like tsunami, earthquake, cyclone, elections in India and has also been in the thick of the action during the civil war in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

However, he couldn’t confine himself to photojournalism. His relentless quest to learn forced him to venture into wildlife and fine art photography. One of these projects is ‘Fluid Moment’ and another crazy one is ‘Shooting From The Toe’. His long-term project is documenting the ever-changing skyline of Dubai, which he is witnessing in the last two decades.

His work has won him many accolades. These include appreciation from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, at the 6th National Photo Contest in 1993 and several ‘Photojournalist of the Year’ and other awards in Dubai. He also has an AFIAP from The International Federation of Photographic Art and a Licentiate of The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. His pictures have made it to various international photographic salons, including solo exhibitions in Dubai and India.

In 2017, he paired up with his artist father for an exhibition titled Genome Effect, which featured his photographs and his father’s paintings. Sankha also presented a paper on photojournalism at the 10th International Photographic Conference 2014 organised by the Photographic Association of Dum Dum, Kolkata, India. This year, he was invited to participate in the first Kolkata International Photo Festival as a photographer and portfolio reviewer.

These accomplishments and accolades have not diminished Sanka’s quest for learning. He continues to look for challenging projects in the world of photography.